HCM City’s youth union responds to Earth Hour 2020

HCM City (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) of Ho Chi Minh City has carried out a range of communication activities in response to Earth Hour 2020.

These activities aim to raise public awareness of climate change , energy saving and environmental protection.

Ngo Minh Hai, Deputy Secretary of the municipal HCYU Executive Committee, said in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, this year’s Earth Hour campaign will be mainly implemented online and through posters, with limited events of large crowds.

Relevant documents will be delivered to households and residential areas in the city. Meanwhile, people are encouraged to popularise media products on Earth Hour through the social network, and change their Facebook and Zalo avatars in response to the campaign.

The city’s youth union has also joined hands with HCM City Power Corporation to launch activities promoting electricity saving, safe power use and solar power.

Apart from an appeal to turn off lights from 20:30 - 21:30 on March 28, the union will hold exchanges with volunteers and green producers on the day.

Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It has been described as the largest world grassroots movement for the environment, with the involvement of around 7,000 cities in 172 countries and territories so far. 

In Vietnam, activities responding to the campaign are coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade with the support of Vietnam Electricity (EVN) which has been the main sponsor of Earth Hour in the country for 10 consecutive years since Vietnam joined the movement in 2009.

Meanwhile, nearly 200,000 members of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, young people, and local residents in Ho Chi Minh City joined hands for a two-week voluntary social service campaign.

The campaign, part of the 2020 Youth Month, had been launched by the city’s Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union at the beginning of this month.

Ngo Minh Hai, deputy secretary of the union, said the activities focus on educating youths about Vietnam’s revolutionary traditions and caring for people benefiting from the Government’s policies and Vietnamese Heroic Mothers.

Propaganda activities to inform the public about the COVID-19 epidemic, environmental protection and reducing pollution and improving the areas along canals and rivers were also undertaken.

Youth union members spoke to members of the public about waste classification at source, building of new-style rural areas and civilised urban areas and building playgrounds for children and environment-friendly toilets.

The Can Gio district youth union introduced products made from recyclable materials, organised training in firefighting and escape, launched a campaign called ‘Let's clean up the ocean’, and donated face masks, hand sanitisers and disinfectants.

The District 7 youth union organised classes in COVID-19 prevention and gave handbooks with prevention guidelines in 19 languages.

A number of posters with instructions from the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization on prevention were put up on bulletin boards and elevator doors in residential buildings in the district.

Information and communication activities were organised to raise public awareness of the importance of traffic and fire safety.

The volunteers also collected used plastic bottles to raise funds for charity, donated crash helmets and health insurance to poor-households and gave scholarships to disadvantaged students.

Members of the District 3 unit donated hand sanitisers and saplings to people living in Nguyen Thien Thuat Apartment in District 3 and encouraged them to use recycled materials to raise awareness of environmental protection.

The annual Youth Month celebrates the founding anniversaries of the Communist Party of Vietnam (February 3), Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (March 26) and National Reunification Day (April 30).

The city's youth month this year stated nine goals for its cells to accomplish, including participating in building civic urban lifestyle, paying homage to revolutionary bases, planting 3,000 trees, improving hygiene conditions of schools' bathrooms and attracting more members to the league./.